(a) Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a body building station, and more particularly to an exercising apparatus for exercising the muscles of the thighs, waist, and abdomen.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, a leg exercising apparatus and an abdominal exercising apparatus are two separate machines. If one wants to exercise his leg as well as his abdominal muscles, one needs to buy two machines, which will then occupy much space. Regarding the known abdominal exercising apparatus, a typical one is shown in FIG. 1, and which mainly comprises a rotary seat 20. The user simply sits on the seat 20 and twists his waist left and right while his legs are lifted above the ground. In this kind of exercising apparatus, the seat 20 moves without being subjected to external resistance. Hence, the exercising effects are no better than when the user simply twists his body while standing or sitting; an office chair may also provide the same exercising effects as such an apparatus. This structural design is therefore devoid of any meritorious features. As for the abdominal exercising mechanism of this kind of exercising apparatus, a U-shaped bar 22 is provided under the seat 20 with the two arms thereof arranged at both sides of the seat 20, and the tips of the two arms of the U-shaped bar 22 are each pivotally connected to a bent press bar 24 having a grip portion 26. By means of a back rest 28 and the grip portions 26, the user may press forward or lean backward to train his abdominal muscles. But because the only source of resistance is supplied by a twisted type rubber resistance element 21 installed at one side of the exercising apparatus, there is the drawback that the resistance is not uniformly distributed, and this affects the overall exercising effects.
As for the conventional leg exercising apparatus, a typical one is shown in FIG. 2. The leg exercising apparatus shown mainly comprises a pair of curved arms 11 connected to a bottom side of a seat 10. A first pair of posts 13 and a second pair of posts 14 are respectively located at the middle and rear sections of a body 12. When the user wants to train his leg muscles by doing leg stretching exercises, rubber resistance elements 15 are respectively fitted onto a third post 16 and the second pair of posts 14 at the middle section of the body 12, thereby the two curved arms 11 are moved to the front of the seat 10 while maintaining a suitable space therebetween. The user may then sit on the seat 10, with the legs put in the space in front and straddling over two supporting arms 17 which are pushed outward in exercising. When the user wants to train his leg muscles by doing leg gripping exercises, the resistance elements 15 are inserted onto the third posts 16 and the first posts 13 at the rear section of the body 12. Due to the resistance of the rubber resistance elements 15, the curved arms 11 are arranged at both sides of the seat 10. The user then sits on the seat 10 and stretches both legs beyond the supporting arms 17 and straddles thereon to push the supporting arms 17 inwardly.
Although the structure of this conventional leg exercising apparatus is simple and easy to use, when the user exercises his leg muscles by doing scissors actions, the legs must be straight and parallel to the ground in order to proceed with the desired exercises. However, as is well known, when the user is in such a posture, his hip muscles, leg muscles and shin muscles must be in a tense state for a long time so that the sitting posture may be maintained. Although there are provided supporting arms 17 for helping to support the thighs, he still has to try to support the weight of the shins. This posture results in extremely unnatural movements of the shins, so that the user feels very exhausted within a very short time. In particular, the lower part of the body and the waist suffers intense soreness. In other words, it is not easy to keep the legs horizontal to the ground in exercising, especially when the user has to further push the supporting arms inwardly or outwardly. Evidently, this leg exercising apparatus is devoid of practical value.